What He Decides (What He Wants, Book Eleven) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Hannah Ford Page B

face
was a mask of determination.   But I
was sick of playing by his rules, sick of the arrogance he displayed by
deciding anything I had to say should be dismissed because he thought he knew
better.
    “Fine.”   I crossed my arms over my chest.   “But if I stay here, we’re talking about this.   We’re discussing it.   You can’t just dismiss me because you
don’t think I’m smart enough to exist on your level.”
    His eyes darkened, his face clouding with
confusion for a moment before softening.   “Is that what you think?   That I don’t think you’re smart enough to have an opinion?”
    “I don’t know what you think,” I
countered.   “Because you won’t tell
me.”
    “Charlotte.”   He took my hand in his.   His strong fingers began kneading my palm, the massage
causing the tension to instantly begin flowing out of my body.   His gaze was on my face, watching me,
smoky and penetrating and disconcerting.   I hated that he had this effect on me, hated that every time I tried to
stand up to him, he would touch me or kiss me or say something that made me
lose my senses, made me lose my mind.    “You are the smartest, kindest, most amazing woman I
know.   You are everything I want,
more than I could dream.”
    His words sent a lusty warmth sliding
through my body.
    I longed to surrender to him, to just let
him take care of everything.   To
let him wrap me in his sweater and take me back to his apartment, to let him
take control, to let him tie me up and take me and render me powerless.  
    It would certainly have been easier to
just play his game, to let him pull the strings, to test me like he had today
at that meeting with Professor Worthington and Clementine.
    For a moment, I almost gave in.
    But I pulled my hand away from his.
    “Then why won’t you talk to me about
this?” I asked softly.   I took my
palm and pressed it against his bare chest.   I could feel his heart beating, strong and steady.   “If you mean those things that you say,
then why won’t you talk to me, Noah?   Why won’t you let me in?”
    He took in a deep breath through his
nose, and I could tell he was fighting his need to control.   I’d seen him battling against it
before, but this time, I wasn’t willing to let it go.
    “We could at least try to   –”
    “No,” he said, taking my hand in his and
pulling it away from his chest.   My
fingers balled into a fist and he wrapped his hand around it.   “This is not up for discussion,
Charlotte.   I refuse to let you
endanger yourself in any way.”
    “What choice do we have?” I asked
him.   “You know how cases like this
end up, Noah.   You’ve seen cases
like this, you know what the prosecutors are going to say, you know what the
end result is going to be.”
    “You’re acting rather arrogant right now,
Ms. Holloway, assuming you know what a jury is going to think or how my defense
team is going to proceed.”
    Him calling me arrogant and referring to
me as ‘Ms. Holloway’ sent fury coursing through my veins.   “That’s funny, calling me
arrogant.”   I picked my jeans back
up from the floor and stepped into them, and this time, he didn’t stop me.   “You’re the one who’s being
arrogant.   You think you can just
step in front of that jury, with the evidence they have against you, Noah, and
what?   That you’re going to charm
them into ignoring DNA evidence?   Worthington will never even let you take the stand.”
    “Colin will do what I say.”  
    “No, he won’t.”   I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head
vehemently.   “He won’t put you on
the stand.   He won’t.   He’s too good of a lawyer for
that.   And then what are you going
to do?   At some point, you are
going to have to face the fact that you cannot control every single aspect of
this case, that you cannot – ”
    He grabbed me then, by the shoulders and
pulled me to him.   “You,” he
growled, “will not tell me what I